A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Salihu Lukman has said that President Bola Tinubu was failing in the task of governing the country.
Lukman, who resigned his position recently as the National Vice Chairman (Northwest) of the APC, said the President has been toeing the same line of failure as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that led to the “wasted years”.
Lukman noted that virtually every Nigerian leader, with probably, negligible exceptions, are self-centred.
According to him, they have limited engagements with President Tinubu to only what they can get from him in terms of appointments into his government.
The former Director General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, (PGF) conveyed his message in an open letter on Wednesday.
Lukman, in his letter, entitled, ‘Burden of Leadership,’ said, “Already, with the way former President Buhari had managed the country for eight years, in the same political orientation PDP ran the country for sixteen years, President Tinubu is justifiably, continuing that path.
“Our leaders who led the merger negotiation to produce APC in 2013, owe it to Nigerians, to call President Tinubu to order and get him to recover whatever is left of his democratic and progressive credentials.
“APC leaders and President Tinubu must resist the temptation of toeing the path of self-destruction by continuing to operate as a closed government.
“Achieving that will require readiness on the part of all APC leaders to make all the sacrifices to regain their respect back, based on which they emerged as leaders and not bosses.
“Although, being a self-acclaimed Awoist and progressive, not coming from a military background like former President Buhari, the expectation of many is that he will at least, be more democratic.
“This should connote more consultations, based on which perhaps, the structures of the APC as a political party would be made more functional.”
He however observed that Tinubu passed the first test with the zoning of the leadership positions of the 10th National Assembly and by extension, the present government.
“Confronted with a hostile party leadership under Senator Abdullahi Adamu who was decidedly anti-zoning, to be fair to President Asiwaju Tinubu, he was able to handle the situation to the best of his ability, based on which he produced a balanced leadership for the 10th National Assembly.
“Unfortunately, most of our APC leaders from the North, for whatever reasons, were speculated to have worked at variance with the initiatives of President Tinubu to produce a balanced leadership.
“That could have been partly, responsible for the complete lack of attempt to forge a united front with President Tinubu and party leaders from the North, to ensure that the successor to Senator Adamu as APC National Chairman is produced through consultations.”
Dr Lukman berated political office holders in the Tinubu administration, accusing them of accumulating financial resources for the 2027 general election.
He said, “Our leaders occupying political offices are busy accumulating financial resources, legitimately or otherwise for future elections.
“We must caution our leaders, as things are, they are on the verge of self-destruction. It is very clear that President Tinubu’s respect for political leaders in the country is weak, largely because of the failure to act as leaders.
“Virtually, all APC leaders are behaving more like bosses. Accordingly, this is now a source of threat with the potential danger of leaders completely losing relevance and unable to command the respect of citizens.”
Lukman said the least will be for APC and President Tinubu to lose elections in 2027, pointing to threats of rebellion against the leadership in the country.
“Given all these, any conclusion about APC shortchanging Nigerians can hardly be dismissed.
“Making APC a functional party is about ensuring that all organs of the party are allowed to operate as provided in the party’s constitution. Anything short of that will only contribute to destroying democracy in Nigeria,” he added.